James Bond 007: From Russia with Love
PlayStation Portable | genre = Third-person shooter | modes = Single-player, multiplayer }} James Bond 007: From Russia with Love is a third-person shooter video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond, whose likeness and voice is that of Sean Connery. The game is based on the 1957 novel and the film of the same name. The game follows the storyline of the book and film, with adding in new scenes to make the game more action-oriented, as well as changing the affiliation of the main villains. Additionally, it features many elements of later Bond films to recreate the feel of the era such as the Aston Martin DB5 that debuted in Goldfinger (1964) and the jet pack from Thunderball (1965). From Russia with Love is also notable in that it is the first video game to use Sean Connery's younger likeness as James Bond and the first to include all new voice work by the actor after twenty-two years away from the role. From Russia with Love is the last James Bond video game by Electronic Arts marketed before they lost the rights to Activision in 2006. It is the second-to-last video game released by MGM Interactive and the last James Bond video game until the release of 007: Quantum of Solace in 2008. Gameplay From Russia with Love features a third-person multiplayer deathmatch mode. Plot One of the changes to the plot of the video game is the absence of the villainous organisation SPECTRE, who played a vital role in the film. Due to legal issues that have plagued the James Bond film series since 1963, the organization was renamed "OCTOPUS" and appears to lack a central leader in the same vein as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The SPECTRE name was tied up in a long-running dispute over the film rights to Thunderball, between United Artists/MGM and the now-deceased writer Kevin McClory. The game begins with a pre-title sequence in which Elizabeth Stark, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's daughter, is kidnapped by OCTOPUS while attending a party. Bond was assigned to attend the party for just such an event, and he defeats OCTOPUS and rescues Miss Stark. Similar to the film, OCTOPUS has conceived a plan to embarrass British secret service agent 007 for the death of Dr. Julius No from the film Dr. No, in which No was an agent of SPECTRE. The plan involves the theft of a Soviet encoding machine known as the Lektor with the help of a defecting Soviet agent, Tatiana Romanova. However, Romanova is being used by OCTOPUS to lure James Bond into a trap; their ultimate goal is to let him obtain the Lektor and then ambush him for it, killing him in humiliating fashion as well. Romanova is sent by Rosa Klebb, an agent of the KGB (in both the novel and film, an agent of SMERSH) who has secretly defected to OCTOPUS. Her immediate subordinate, Donald "Red" Grant, protects Bond through the first half of the game and attacks him in the second. The game ends with a final assault on OCTOPUS headquarters, during which Grant is fatally shot by Bond. Cast Many of the cast from the film version of From Russia with Love return in likeness. Sean Connery, the first actor to portray James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, returned to the role for the first time in 22 years since the unofficial 1983 remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again. Connery allowed for his likeness of Bond to be used (appropriately from the 1963 film), and also recorded new voice work for the character at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with engineer Terry Manning. In addition, two new characters were added to the story, voiced by Natasha Bedingfield and Maria Menounos, were added to the main cast (with the actress' likenesses incorporated). Development From Russia with Love is the first title developed by Electronic Arts Redwood Shores to use an integrated game engine for the third-person shooter action and driving segments. It was a new engine that was not based on any of the technology used for previous titles in the series but the result was similar to Id Tech 3. The game was written by Bruce Feirstein who previously worked on the film scripts for GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough, in addition to the script for the video game Everything or Nothing. Feirstein would also go on to write stories for future Bond games at Activision, including the 2010 remake of GoldenEye 007, third-person shooter Blood Stone, and 50th anniversary game 007 Legends. The game's soundtrack was composed by Christopher Lennertz. Additionally, Vic Flick, best known for playing the original guitar riff in the James Bond Theme announced that he contributed to Lennertz's score. On April 5, 2005, Sean Connery was slated to lend his voice and likeness for the game. Connery said "As an artist, I see this as another way to explore the creative process. Video games are an extremely popular form of entertainment today, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all fits together". On October 20, 2005, From Russia With Love was complete. Reception (Xbox) 69.37% (PS2) 69.25% (PSP) 63.81% | MC = (Xbox) 71/100 (GC) 70/100 (PS2) 69/100 (PSP) 61/100 | EGM = 6.17/10 | EuroG = 6/10 | GI = 7.75/10 (PSP) 6.75/10 | GamePro = (PSP) | GSpot = 7/10 (PSP) 6.3/10 | GSpy = (Xbox) (PS2) (PSP) | GameZone = 6.9/10 | IGN = 7.9/10 (PSP) 7.1/10 | NP = 7/10 | OPM = (PS2) (PSP) | OXM = 8/10 | rev1 = Maxim | rev1Score = 6/10 | rev2 = The Times | rev2Score = }} From Russia With Love received mixed reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the GameCube version 73.65% and 70/100, the Xbox version 69.37% and 71/100, the PlayStation 2 version 69.25% and 69/100 and the PlayStation Portable version 63.81% and 61/100. Many points were given to the enhanced graphics and play difficulty. The Times gave it a score of four stars out of five and stated that "It’s enough to make you toss your trilby on to a hat-rack in delight." However, Maxim gave it a score of six out of ten and stated that though the game was challenging, "it's also sometimes pedestrian, with a host of uninspired levels and dim bad guys ruining what could have been the triumphant return of 007." Within three months of its release, it had sold approximately 277,000 copies. See also * Outline of James Bond References External links * * Category:2005 video games Category:Cold War video games Category:Electronic Arts games Category:MGM Interactive games Video game Category:James Bond video games Category:GameCube games Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games Category:PlayStation 2 games Category:PlayStation Portable games Category:Rebellion Developments games Category:Third-person shooters Category:Video games developed in the United Kingdom Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Video games set in London Category:Video games set in Turkey Category:Video games set in the 1960s Category:Visceral Games Category:Xbox games Category:Video games scored by Christopher Lennertz